Bonn Agrees to Pay Indemnification for Nazi-looted Property in Belgium

A triangular agreement was concluded here today providing indemnification by Germany for spoliation of property in Belgium by the Nazis during the occupation of the country in World War II.

Under the agreement, reached between the German Ministry of Finance, the organization for aid to Jewish war victims and the Belgian Office for Economic Recuperation, the West German Government will pay indemnification to the value of 80 percent for property plundered and transferred to Germany from 1942 to the end of the war. The contents of about 8,000 homes are involved in the agreement.

The victims of spoliation will not have to submit proof of the value of the property stolen from them. They will receive a settlement on the basis of 4,800 German marks ($1,150) per room emptied of its contents. The negotiators agreed that this sum was to be regarded as the equivalent of 80 percent of the original value of the property.